“What do you think, old man?” Den said between panted breaths. Pip joined him by his side. He knelt down and made a fuss of the dog. “I ain’t just a pretty face, am I, girl?”
“No,” Maria said, before realizing he was talking to the dog. She turned away to hide her embarrassment.
“Oh,” Mai said, lifting out a disc-shaped object from Den’s pack. “What’s this? Looks alien, of course.”
“Bomb,” Denver said. “I used it to take out the anti-grav engine of that bastard’s ship. You just press…” Denver reached out and grabbed Mai’s wrist to stop her from touching the small screen. “Jesus, Mai. That’s what activates it.”
Mike lifted the second one. “I’ll have to make some safeties for you. Wouldn’t want it going off by mistake. But as nice as these are, what about the magnet?”
Denver fished out a box with a Ford label stamped on it and handed it over. “These?”
“Holy crap, Den, there’s half a dozen here.”
“I think there might be more there,” Den said. “I saw boxes everywhere and grabbed the first one I saw. I wanted to get back before… Well, before we all got killed by that thing out there.”
“What is it?” Mai asked. “A soldier?”
“Worse,” Charlie said. “I don’t know what it is. One of the croatoans’ experiments perhaps, some other alien imported from God knows where. But it took a .50 cal to the leg and was still alive, still moving. We’ve got to clear out right now before the bastard tracks the way in.”
“On it,” Mike said, heading to one of his over-filled desks. Mai joined him. Together, they opened the case of the bomb and started to install the part.
Maria sat down on a plastic chair and wiped tears from her eyes. “I can’t believe what happened to Ethan. One minute he was right there by me, the next…”
Denver knelt down by her, held her hands within his. “I know it’s hard,” he said. “It’s a shock. It’s difficult and brutal, and it hurts. But right now, we have to remember him and everyone else that died at the aliens’ hands. We have to remember them and go on because what we intend to do will honor them. We can’t lose focus on that. We can grieve later. Take the pain, but don’t let it consume you, okay? You’re with us; you’re one of us. We’ll stick together.”
Maria looked down at Denver, her face blemished with dirt, the tears tracking the stains down her cheeks. “You were so brave,” she said, “to go off like that. How can I be that brave? I’m so scared. It feels like danger waits in every shadow. I’m not sure I can go on.”
“It’s understandable,” Denver said. “This is all new to you, but believe me, as dangerous as this seems, it’s like a vacation to how it was. We have to put all this into perspective and carry on. If not, then what else is there?”
“Waiting to die,” Maria said.
“And I’m not one for waiting,” Denver said, flashing her a smile. “So what say you come with us and let be what will be? Let’s do this, bring down that mother ship, strike back at these bastards, and show them that they’ve underestimated us.”
Maria wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. “I guess we have no real option. Count me in.”
She stood and hugged Denver.
Charlie smiled and turned away to prepare their exit. On the other side of the basement was a fire exit that led across the street. Mike and a few others who had sadly passed on had dug a tunnel further through until they came out into the subway system. Although flooded, the water level wasn’t so high that they couldn’t get an inflatable raft in there.
In emergencies, they’d used it a few times before. If they followed the right route, they could get through enough of the train system to get clear of Manhattan. They kept a smaller raft stored in the basement. The other dinghy was too large.
Now their load was lighter, they could squeeze onto the raft and get out. It’d be tight, but it was better than risking going over ground. All the shooting would have stirred up other survivors lurking in the city.
“Hey, Chuck, it’s ready,” Mike said, calling out from the other end of the tunnel.
Charlie walked back to find them standing around the device. Mai had a satisfied look on her face. “Your boy done good,” she said, winking at Denver. “It works perfectly. But here’s the thing. You’ll have one shot at this. Once activated by using the touchscreen here, there’s no going back. If it malfunctions for whatever reason, the regulating magnet will be fried, and no offense, you won’t have the expertise to wire in another in time and figure out what’s wrong.”
“Understood,” Charlie said.
Denver’s forehead wrinkled. “It doesn’t sound very… solid. I mean, it’s a huge risk going up there. If it doesn’t go off, it’ll be for nothing.”
“That’s my worry, son. We’ve talked about this already. It’s my time. I’m going up there. I trust that it’ll work. You’ll just have to trust me.”
“Wait,” Maria said. “So what you’re saying is this is a complete suicide mission? There’s absolutely no way you’re coming back if it works or not?”
“We all have to make a sacrifice,” Charlie said, “and this is mine. Okay, that’s enough of the philosophy. Let’s have less chat and more action. Mike, prep the bomb and make it safe for travel. We’ve got to go. I suggest you get Mai out of here too.”
“Will do, Chuck,” Mike said. “And don’t worry about us. We’ve got transport waiting for us.”
Mike placed the bomb inside a plastic flight case and made sure it was clipped tightly shut. He handed it to Charlie with his left hand and extended his right. Charlie took it and shook it firmly. “I’ll miss you, you crazy old bastard,” Charlie said, trying to swallow the lump in his throat.
“And you too, you reckless fool. One of these days, you’ll get yourself killed.”
“One of these days. But not today.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Augustus pulled the cannula from his body after the last of the root compound had flowed into his bloodstream. With a sigh of satisfaction, he sat back on his human-leather recliner.
The cool, white-blue lights of the mother ship made his skin look pale and diseased, but he knew he was never in better health. Every nerve tingled and every hair stood on end as the root compound did its magic in repairing any aging cells.
He took this shot a few days early, having caught a bug from one of the cattle-scum down on the surface. Probably from Gregor, he thought. That reckless fool mixed with people without any concern for his health. Gregor was a walking, talking disease factory. Like they all were.
After all this time, human beings were still barely better than pigs and cows. Even the livestock had the same herding instinct as cows. Still, they made for a good, nutritious food supply while the root took hold. And for now, the second crop appeared to be perfect. More perfect than many of the planets the croatoans had terraformed.
Though he had been in and out of stasis since his last day as Roman Emperor Valens, he wasn’t one to dwell much on the past. Especially given it was so long ago. But stasis within a croatoan pod had the effect of compressing time. That fateful day during the Battle of Adrianople, the ninth of August, 378 AD, was still clear. The Goths, led by the maggot, Fritigern, defeated his Roman army and set about the destruction of the Roman Empire as it was known. He, Emperor Valens, removed his habit and disappeared into a village, escaping as nothing more than a battle-wounded peasant.
For five long days, he’d wandered through the woods of Thracia until he’d managed to seek voyage across to Greece.
Augustus closed his eyes, the fatigue of post-root injection making him tired. Though it was nothing like the fatigue of his escape; this was more of a spaced-out bliss. His body rejuvenated, growing young and vital again.